Video Shows SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Land on Droneship, Then Fall Over and Explode

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster approaches the droneship Just Read The Instructions during a landing attempt in the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 17, 2016 after the successful launch of the Jason-3 ocean satellite.

Credit: SpaceX

A video posted late Sunday by billionaire Elon Musk shows just how close his spaceflight company SpaceX came to landing its Falcon 9 rocket on a robotic platform parked in the Pacific Ocean yesterday (Jan. 17).

The short video, which Musk posted on Instagram, shows the Falcon 9 rocket first stage touching down on the drone ship as planned, but then falling over to hit the deck and explode. Musk has said one of the four landing legs on the rocket failed to latch securely, leading to the fall. The rocket landing occured after SpaceX successfully launched the Jason-3 satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite will map Earth's oceans in unprecedented detail for NASA and NOAA.

Thick, persistent fog blanketed SpaceX's launch site at Vandenberg throughout the countdown to the Jason-3 launch on Sunday. The mission blasted off at 1:42 p.m. EST (10:42 a.m. PST/1842 GMT). SpaceX's droneship "Just Read The Instructions" was stationed about 200 miles (320 kilometers) west of San Diego during the landing attempt.

Last month, SpaceX successfully landed a Falcon 9 rocket on dry land at its Landing Site 1 pad based at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. That rocket landing followed the successful launch of 11 ORBCOMM communications satellites by the same booster. SpaceX also attempted droneship rocket landings several times in 2015 in the Atlantic Ocean, but was unsuccessful.

In this still image from a video, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage explodes on the droneship Just Read The Instructions during a landing attempt at sea on Jan. 17, 2016 after a successful satellite launch.

SpaceX and Elon Musk have been pursuing reusable rocket technology in order to drive down the cost of spaceflight. SpaceX hopes to launch, land and refly the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket by the end of 2016. The company is aiming to develop a completely reusable launch vehicle as part of its goal of eventually reaching Mars.

Another private spaceflight company, Blue Origin founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is also pursuing reusable rocket technology with vertical landings like SpaceX. Last November, the company launched its suborbital New Shepard rocket and landed it on a pad at its West Texas test site.

Tariq joined Purch's Space.com team in 2001 as a staff writer, and later editor, covering human spaceflight, exploration and space science. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Google+, Twitter and on Facebook.